Annual report released to Hamilton council

It’s an area of city business usually conducted behind closed doors. City legal affairs by their nature, are not generally discussed in open council, for a lot of reasons. But the public got a peek behind the confidentially curtain, when the department rolled out its annual report to council Wednesday morning.

We don’t often stop to consider what exactly the city legal department deals with on a day to day basis — but the scope and variety of legal issues is both long, and wide ranging. The City Legal department deals with everything from pothole damage claims, to complex contracts for things like the new stadium. They also deal with development fights at the Ontario Municipal Board, and a number of other government agencies. But most of the lawsuits filed against the city involve accidents on public property. On sidewalks, stairs, escalators, or sports and recreation equipment in public parks, and arenas.

According to the report, the city lost only two percent of those cases in 2013, and 98 percent were either settled by insurance, or won out-right, in court. That meant, that although the City was sued for $192-million dollars in total claims last year — it paid out only three-point eight million.

But of all the items City lawyers deal with — there is one that’s growing faster than any other — red light cameras. Even though running a red light is a provincial traffic offence — the city prosecutes the charge in return for a portion of the revenue collected.

Over the last three years, the number of tickets handed out for running red lights has jumped from roughly 9,700 cases to more than 15,500 incidents — a rise of more than 55 percent.

Councillor Lloyd Ferguson: “I’m worried that it may become a cash cow. I just want to make sure we’re not using this as a way to put another tax in place. I found it interesting with the City solicitor saying that there’s no proof, that it makes intersections any safer.”

Part of the increase, is due to the fact that the number of cameras in the city has gone from three to an even dozen — with more scheduled for installation. But in comparison to other charges laid by the city — red light violations are by far, the runaway winner in terms of sheer volume. Animal control violations are a distant second — and municipal by-law infractions such as noise complaints, rank third. All of this legal activity costs the city roughly six-million dollars per year. Is it good value for the buck?

Councillor Ferguson: “I think we get good value from our legal department.”

But he’s still wondering, about those cameras.

The biggest concern for councillors about the legal department seemed to be the on-going reliance on outside legal assistance, for some issues. While they agree that, in some cases dealing with outside counsel is unavoidable, they would still like to reduce the number of those cases — and more to the point — the number of hours that outside lawyers spend, and bill — on city business.